Death is no punishment or deterrence

Lately, we’ve been posting on our social media about sentences murders of trans women are getting. While it probably feels good for most people to see justice served. There remains a sense of intense negativity that must be addressed in such conclusions.

A sense of revenge lies just underneath the act of sentencing someone for killing someone. Somewhere we believe a death for a death is apt. But we know death penalty cases are expensive, they drain resources and such punishments don’t reduce crime. Don’t believe me? Look at this. Also, if you think death penalties offer resolution for victim’s families. You’re wrong again.

So the “Good riddance” feeling you have when someone who has killed a trans person gets a harsh sentence or even the death penalty, IMO, is seriously backfiring: It’s only causing more of what you’re not wanting to see.

Finally, death is not a penalty. There is no such thing as a hell in the afterlife. I’ve been there. I know. There is only bliss and wonder and a return to your unbounded eternal state. So if you think punishing someone by sending them back to a blissful state is really a punishment, then you have a strange idea of punishment.

It’s far better to invest in real deterrence, particularly when it comes to violence on trans people: education. Thankfully, the entertainment industry, and some corporations are in on that.

Kill all the murders you want and you won’t stop people killing trans people. Or anyone else. Murder is not a deterrence. Nor is it a punishment.